TOKYO —The government said Wednesday it would like to buy up large tracts of abandoned land in the 20-kilometer no-go zone around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in order to build long-term storage facilities for contaminated soil and radioactive waste.

Environment Minister Goshi Hosono, who is also the minister in charge of handling the nuclear crisis, outlined the government’s plan during a meeting with Fukushima Gov Yuhei Sato in Fukushima City, NHK reported.

The plan calls for the government to buy up or lease land that has been abandoned in the Futaba area where radiation doses are likely to exceed 100 millisieverts per year. Hosono also met with the mayors of the eight municipalities that make up the Futaba area.

The facilities, which would have concrete walls, will be used to store containers of contaminated soil and radioactive waste from the no-go zone and other areas in and around Fukushima Prefecture.

The waste will initially be stored for three years in short-term repositories while the government constructs bigger facilities for storage over a 30-year period.

Hosono said he envisioned the biggest facility would cover an area of 5 square kilometers and be able to hold up to 28 million cubic meters of waste.